Mum of Croydon murderer vows to stand by her son

Ali Zahawy pictured waving a knife while driving a car in June 2016 (Image: MET Police)

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Visiting their child in prison is a scenario almost no parent will ever envisage themselves having to go through.

But that is exactly what now faces Dunia Shafik. And she knows it is what faces her for years to come.

Mrs Shafik's son, Ali Zahawy, is serving a life sentence in Belmarsh Prison for the murder of Selsdon teenager Andre Aderemi, who was chased through the Monks Hill estate and then brutally stabbed, kicked and beaten with a metal pole.

She had hoped her son would be a good role model for his own young son when he became a dad at the age of 17.

Andre Aderemi was stabbed to death on the Monks Hill estate in August 2016

Yet he is now behind bars having been given the life sentence in May where he was told he would spend at least 22 years in prison.

She is, of course, devastated. But she wants no sympathy.

Instead she wants to focus her attention on educating young people about the dangers of knife crime, so that other mothers' sons don't end up dead or spending what should be the best years of their lives in jail.

Reflecting on his younger years, she beamed with pride at the memory of him passing the entry exams to get into Trinity High School - a top independent school in Croydon.

What promise he once had.

Ali Zahawy and Rodney Mukasa were convicted at the Old Bailey of murder (Image: Thomas Mackintosh)

Pondering how it turned out like this, she recalls: "When I used to have a spider at home I would call Ali to come and kill it, and he kept on saying 'why kill it?'

"He would bring a tissue, softly remove it and put it on the window.

"He had a beautiful connection with animals, so how could he kill a human being?

"He still is a smart boy, but he used it in the wrong direction. That's why I'm not giving up on him, I know the foundation he has is very solid so I am just hoping he will make the right choices [from now on]. Our family gave him a good upbringing, really invested in him in time and in money, loving him so much - all of that."

Mrs Shafik's life changed forever on August 16 last year when Mr Aderemi was killed by a gang of four young men, including Zahawy.

It was a brutal death which shocked a community and was a tragic climax to a series of tit-for-tat crimes between two rival groups of friends.

Mrs Shafik received a text about a "horrible incident" which had taken place on the Monks Hill estate.

Rodney Mukasa and Ali Zahawy were jailed for the murder of Andre Aderemi (Image: MET Police)

She explains: "It said Ali's friends were there but [that there was] no sign of Ali. Then I realised Ali was there. Then the whole shocking episode in our life started. He was arrested. I wasn't able to speak to him."

Zahawy was remanded in custody at Highdown Prison, before later being moved to Belmarsh.

Mrs Shafik describes walking into a prison for the first time as "a total new world".

She adds: "When I went to visit him in Highdown I had to push every single nerve in my body not to cry when I saw him so that I didn't put extra pressure on him.

"Then, when I had to leave, I can remember saying 'why can't I take him out with me?'

"Now I just tell him ... maybe by being inside you are going to review everything, use your time wisely, use the resources available and make your son proud of you.

"[I tell him] you are young, and we [can] work together. You work on the inside, I'll work on the outside to help young people who are trapped in [a similar] circle of negative thoughts."

Asked what she thinks led him to ultimately become a killer, Mrs Shafik talks about the pressures of growing up and how her son had become frustrated at a lack of job opportunities.

Speaking about him becoming a father at a young age, she accepts it was a responsibility that he "wasn't ready for".

She adds: "He was trying his best, but he was only 17. He wasn't a grown up himself so wasn't really ready to act like a proper big man who is having a child, because himself was still going through the process of growing up. It just made his life more difficult because he wanted to buy stuff for his son.

"He wanted to get him the nicest clothes, trainers but at the same time he was a student himself. So how could he afford all that?

"[The] reality [of his life] was something that didn't encourage him; smoking weed [instead allowed him to live in] a fantasy world.

"It was his escape."

As well as taking drugs, Mrs Shafik explained that her son would struggle to sort out his problems maturely, instead creating enemies and falling into a gang.

She blames the people he came to hang around with for dragging him into a life that would end so catastrophically for so many people.

Just days before Mr Aderemi was killed, Zahawy himself was rushed to hospital after being stabbed in the back.

Mrs Shafik, who is 39, explains how doctors told him he was lucky not to have been paralysed.

She feared that worse was to come as she knew her son had an irresponsible instinct to retaliate.

"I got a phone call to say he was in hospital, I saw the wound and I was really, really shocked," she recalls.

"If the knife had gone in one inch further it would have put him in a wheelchair. When he woke up the doctor said 'you are a lucky young man, one more inch and you would have been paralysed for the rest of your life'.

"I asked 'what are you going to do?'

"He said he just wanted to go out.

"Being friends with the wrong group of people, carrying a knife, a young person loses his life - I'm sure he regrets all of that.

"But at the same time he was stabbed ... he was avoiding [being called a] coward, being stabbed and not doing anything, it is just not acceptable because then he would be called horrible names.

"[If you don't retaliate] you are finished on the street, so they have to take their revenge rather than go to the police.

"If you talk to the police then you are a snitch, then somebody else from a different gang will come and get you."

While she wasn't able to stop her son from making some appalling and horrific decisions, she believes that the best hope for tackling knife crime is to do everything possible to ensure children are being "raised in the right way".

She recalls how her son said "I love you Mum" moments after the guilty verdict was delivered.

"The day of the verdict was the toughest day ever," she says.

"In my opinion they should have been given tough sentences, but give them a chance, like [release them] after 10 years because they are only young.

"Ali will be 42 [by the time he is considered for release]; a different man.

"It is too long. How can you give someone more than he has been living on this planet? You [are] judging a teenager for another 22 years.

"At least give [him] a chance. If he is acting in an aggressive way [in prison] then he deserves [to serve a longer sentence]. But if this person is growing up and learning from the mistake, 22 years is too long.

"I am sure he will learn.

"Everyone writes to him, emails, telephones, the whole family is behind him. My parents, my husband's family - everybody. [We are] just trying to keep the spirit he has and make sure he doesn't give up, because why give up. Even if he comes out at 42 he is still young."

After everything she has been through, Mrs Shafik warned youngsters to think long an hard about the consequences of going around in possession of a knife.

She says: "Just remember [that if you are in prison], when it is your birthday, or Mother's Day, or Father's Day and when it is Christmas or Eid - on those days which are meant to be happy days you will make sure your parents are having their most terrible day by not having put that knife down.

"Each one of those days are going to be like hell. If you don't want to put pain in your mum and dad's hearts just don't touch a knife."